Street Calls of the Week

Investing.com -- Here is your Pro Recap of the top takeaways from Wall Street analysts for the past week.

InvestingPro subscribers always get first dibs on market-moving AI analyst comments. Upgrade today!

General Dynamics

What happened? On Monday, Seaport upgraded General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD) to Buy with a $376 price target.

*TLDR: GD weakness is a buy opportunity. Catalysts loom; investors should front-run.

What’s the full story? Seaport upgrades GD to Buy from Neutral, slapping a $376 price target on it. The rationale? Near-term budget theatrics and potential government shutdown weakness scream "buy-the-dip opportunity," especially with valuation looking compelling and new tax incentives juicing business jet demand. Investor sentiment? Indifferent, echoing a neutral consensus. But Seaport says that’s noise. The fiscal year ends September 30, and while a shutdown could spook the herd, it’s likely short-lived. GD’s fundamentals are improving, and The Firm sees the selloff as a gift. Execution concerns that once justified neutrality have eased, reducing downside risk. Near-term, GD might trade flat or down on shutdown fears, but Seaport says get ahead of the curve. Positive catalysts loom: a continuing resolution (CR) is more probable than a shutdown, the Pentagon’s pivot to “how soon” from “how much” is juicing backlog growth, and new contracts with incentive fees are margin boosters. Post-2026, upside risks are real, and investors are already discounting 2027/28.

Shutdown or not? It’s 50/50, but Seaport leans toward a CR and a 3-month extension. A shutdown, if it happens, is mostly headline risk—unless it drags beyond six months. The real pain? The Akron invoice processing center shuts, choking cash flows. Defense firms, though, are insulated from broader CR impacts.

Bottom line: GD’s weakness is a setup for a bullish move. Buy now, hold tight, and let the catalysts do the work.

NuScale Power

What happened? On Tuesday, BofA downgraded Nuscale Power Corp (NYSE:SMR) to Underperform with a $34 price target.

*TLDR: Valuations unrealistic; downgrades reflect skepticism. Near-term risk outweighs reward.

What’s the full story? BofA downgrades Oklo Inc (NYSE:OKLO) (Neutral from Buy) and Nuscale Power Corp (NYSE:SMR) (Underperform from Neutral), arguing valuations now bake in SMR deployment ramps and discount rates that are, frankly, delusional. Reverse DCFs at a 14% discount rate suggest 15.5GW for Oklo and 34.7GW for NuScale by 2040—44% and 92% above their base cases, respectively. Combined, that’s ~50GW, 7% above Wood Mackenzie’s 47GW global SMR pipeline. Oklo trades at 16.9x/10.8x 2032/33E EV/EBITDA; NuScale at 11.9x/10.6x, with implied discount rates of 10.9% and 6.2%—way below BofA’s 14% sector benchmark.

The team bumps Oklo’s price target to $117 (from $92) on higher peer multiples and a premium for DOE-backed first-of-a-kind de-risking, while NuScale’s target drops to $34 (from $38) on ENTRA1 dilution. Both reflect an 80/20 relative & DCF blend, with DCF updated to a 14.0% discount rate (from ~15.6%) to reflect policy tailwinds. Long-term nuclear? Still a thing. But valuations leave no margin for error, and near-term risk/reward skews grim. Cycle markers scream late-stage AI trade: retail euphoria, 1-2% active ownership, and 15-20% passive. Caveat emptor.

Coinbase Global

What happened? On Wednesday, BTIG initiated Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:COIN) at Buy with a $410 price target.

*TLDR: BTIG bullish on Coinbase. Crypto’s future linchpin.

What’s the full story? BTIG puts a Buy rating and $410 price target on Coinbase Global (COIN), betting the house on its dual flywheel: a volatile trading platform with a trusted brand and a scaled crypto juggernaut bridging TradFi and DeFi. The brokerage sees COIN as the linchpin driving crypto adoption, positioned to win whether the market craves speculation or utility. Derivatives and Base App? Undervalued gems in an investor’s blind spot. USDC’s stablecoin dominance? A runway longer than markets realize.

Coinbase is crypto’s Goldman Sachs—trusted, entrenched, and relentless. BTIG expects it to keep innovating, defending its kingpin status while unlocking diversified growth.

The brokerage’s message is clear: COIN isn’t just a trade; it’s a stake in crypto’s future.

Bloom Energy

What happened? On Thursday, Mizuho downgraded Bloom Energy Corp (NYSE:BE) to Neutral with a $79 price target.

*TLDR: Bloom Energy price target surges. Neutral on constraints.

What’s the full story? Bloom Energy’s DCF-based price target surges to $79, up from $48, as Mizuho sees demand clarity crystallizing with utility-scale data center orders.

The analysts flag the ~900-MW Wyoming project as a harbinger of future capacity needs, though it’s still nascent. Yet, the firm slaps a Neutral rating on the stock, citing internal production constraints as the Achilles’ heel. Bloom’s Fremont factory is on track to hit 2 GW/year by end-2026, with potential to scale to 3 GW/year by 2027 and 5 GW/year by 2029—if it opens the capex spigot wider. Equipment sales volume is pegged to grow at a 53% CAGR from 2025 to 2030, a conservative call given the runway ahead.

Beyond that, Mizuho pencils in greenfield expansion or contract manufacturing, but warns against premature commitment without a multi-year backlog to justify the leap.

For now, patience is the play.

Apple

What happened? On Friday, Jefferies downgraded Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) to Underperform with a $205.16 price target.

*TLDR: iPhone 17 thrives on pricing strategy. Foldable hype lacks substance.

What’s the full story? The iPhone 17’s demand surge isn’t about innovation—it’s about pricing. Apple skips price hikes for Pro/Pro Max models while effectively cutting the base model’s cost, juiced by sky-high trade-in values for iPhone 15/16. China’s appetite is voracious: the 256GB variant gets a Rmb500 subsidy, and trade-in values outpace other markets. Resale premiums for the 17 Pro Max hit 5%-15% across all variants, up from just one premium variant last year. Early production in 2023 smoothed supply, but this year’s tighter inventory extends lead times. Meanwhile, the 17 Air flops—its thinness isn’t a selling point, and the new form factor fails to drive sales.

The bullish hype around the 18 Fold is dubious. A $2K price tag caps the TAM, and Samsung—Apple’s display supplier—already nails the foldable formula. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 boasts a near-crease-free screen and a svelte 4.2mm unfolded profile, thinner than the 17 Air’s 5.5mm.

Yet, even Samsung’s foldable volumes are a paltry 3M units annually. Apple’s valuation implies an absurd 14M foldable units yearly, triple Samsung’s run rate. Without innovation, this price-driven replacement cycle risks margins.